Business
NRIs: Buying a Home in India Made Easy Friday, November 17, 2006 In recent years, India has been witnessing unprecedented growth in the real estate sector fueled by the increased business activity. Real estate development in India is estimated at USD 12 billion and growing at 30% every year. Though all segments of real estate business such as corporate, retail and residential have been driving this growth, investment in residential property itself constitutes 80% of this sector. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) are one of the key contributors to the growth of the real estate industry and considering the immense potential in India, they are likely to step-up the investment in future. In this article, senior tax professionals with Ernst & Young – Gaurav Taneja and Rajesh S provide an overview of the key exchange control and tax implications that should be considered by NRIs while investing in house property in India. Exchange control regulations – The Indian Government has considerably eased the restrictions relating to investments by NRIs in house property. There is virtually no restriction or approval required for an NRI to invest in properties in India from funds received in India through normal banking channels or held in Non-resident External (NRE) account/ Foreign Currency Non-resident (FCNR) account (B)/ Non-resident Ordinary (NRO) rupee account. However, investment in agricultural land/ plantation property/ farm house is currently prohibited. The recurring rental income earned on letting out of property is also freely repatriable. Sale/ Repatriation – An NRI can freely sell or gift his/ her property to another Indian resident or NRI or person of Indian origin. However, there are certain restrictions imposed on repatriation of sale proceeds. In case of investments made from inward remittances or out of NRE account or FCNR account (B), the repatriation of sale proceeds is permitted only upto the amount of initial investment. In case the repatriation is made out of balances held in NRO rupee account (balances include sale proceeds of house property), then an amount of USD one million per calendar year can be repatriated. One of the significant restrictions that is placed on repatriation is that the NRI can repatriate the sale proceeds only upto two residential properties. This could dampen the interest of NRIs in residential property, as investors would like to have free flow of capital while making such investments. Income tax – The income tax implications on house property income in India would be dependent on whether the property is kept vacant or let out. In case an NRI has only one property in India and if it is kept vacant, then it would be possible to say that there should not be any rental value for such property as the NRI was not able to occupy the same owing to his employment, business or professional carried out at any other place. However, if he owns two properties and both of them are kept vacant, then he is required to pay income tax on one of the properties as if the property had been let out. The tax laws do not provide clear guidance on how the rental value is to be determined for such property. It simply states that the annual rent should be the sum which the property might reasonably be expected to let from year to year. Though there are judicial precedents that are available which suggest adoption of municipal value/ fair rent, there could be some practical difficulties in ascertaining such value in the ever increasing rental market. In case of let out properties, the actual rental income (after reducing the municipal taxes) would be subject to tax. The tax law allows a general deduction of 30% on the rental income and also allows for deduction towards interest subject to certain conditions. Tax payments –
Under Indian tax law, the payer is required to withhold tax on rental income paid to a non-resident @ 30.6%…
